Just 75 years after the Holocaust, a new poll by CNN finds alarming anti-Semitic sentiments across Europe.
Around one in 20 Europeans polled – 5% – said they had never heard of the Holocaust. In Austria, the birthplace of Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler, 40% of adult respondents said they knew "just a little" about the Holocaust.
In an interview with CNN, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed concern over the poll's findings.
Anti-Semitism "is an ancient disease and when it rears its ugly head, it first attacks the Jews, but it never stops with that, and then it sweeps entire societies, as happened obviously in mid-century Europe, first in Germany and then throughout all of Europe, and the consequences were horrible," he said.
Education along with a "strong, forceful position" against anti-Semitism, are important in the fight against the phenomenon, he said.
Offering praise for European leaders he said have acted to curb anti-Semitism, Netanyahu said, "I spoke to [German Chancellor Angela] Merkel, [French President Emmanuel] Macron, [British Prime Minister Theresa] May and others – they're putting up a fight. I'm seeing this in Eastern Europe. I saw [Prime Minister] Viktor Orban in Hungary – he has opened up a center against anti-Semitism. I saw [Chancellor] Sebastian Kurz in Austria – he just held a conference against anti-Semitism, and that's encouraging."
Of the 7,000 people in Austria, France, Germany, Britain, Hungary, Poland and Sweden polled by CNN, a majority said it was important to keep the memory of the Holocaust alive, with two-thirds agreeing that doing so would help ensure similar atrocities do not recur. In Poland, the figure was 80%.
While half of the Europeans polled said commemorating the Holocaust could be beneficial in the fight against anti-Semitism, some 33% said they believe Jews take advantage of the Holocaust for their own personal benefit.
Fifty-four percent said Israel has the right to exist as a Jewish state. In Poland, two-thirds of respondents agreed with that sentiment.
One-third of Europeans said criticism of Israel is generally motivated by anti-Semitism. Yet one-third agreed that Israel uses the Holocaust as justification for its actions.
A third of respondents said Israel's supporters accuse Israeli critics of being anti-Semitic in an effort to silence them.
Many respondents said they thought anti-Semitism was a growing problem in their country. Some 40% said Jews were at risk of violence, and half said their government should do more to combat anti-Semitism.
Yet significant minorities said the Jews themselves or Israel were to blame for anti-Semitism.
Interestingly, across the seven countries polled, only one person in 10 said they personally had an unfavorable opinion of Jews. By comparison, 16% said they had unfavorable opinions of members of the LGBTQ community, 36% for immigrants, 37% for Muslims and 39% for Romani.
One in three Europeans said Jews had too much political clout around the world. Around 40% of respondents in both Poland and Hungary said Jews had too much control over global business and finance.
Two-thirds of those polled overestimated the percentage of the world's and their country's Jewish population, with 25% of Hungarians and 20% of Brits and Poles estimating that Jews comprise 20% of the global population. Despite this, two-thirds of the Germans, Poles and Austrians polled and half of Brits, French, Hungarians and Austrians said they had never met a Jewish person.
According to a recent Pew Research Center study, only about 0.2% of the world's population is Jewish.
Germany's anti-Semitism commissioner, Felix Klein, called the poll's results "appalling."
He said that to combat anti-Semitism, "it is fundamental to keep the memory of the Shoah alive and nurture a vivid culture of remembrance."
Klein said he would encourage other European states to create positions such as his.
"Our biggest challenge, however, will be to change the views people hold about Jews. This is a task for all of us, and for the sake of society as a whole – because anti-Semitism is a threat for any democratic, open society," he said.
European Jewish Congress President Moshe Kantor said the poll's findings "back up recent figures about anti-Semitic attacks across the continent, showing that such attacks do not exist in a vacuum but are the practical manifestation of longstanding attitudes of hate turning into violence."
According to Kantor, "To legitimize Jew-hatred is bad enough, but to delegitimize the Jewish right to fight this oppression is absolutely intolerable."
A spokeswoman for CRIF, the representative body of the French Jewish community, said the poll showed anti-Semitism was "evolving as a multiform disease."
"It is astounding to read that substantial minorities blame Israel or Jews themselves for anti-Semitism," she said.
Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial and museum chairman Avner Shalev said the poll "highlights the troubling fact that many entrenched hateful anti-Semitic tropes persist in European civilization, 75 years after the end of the Holocaust."
He said the poll is proof of the need to intensify Holocaust education and increase awareness, which are necessary to contend with anti-Semitism.
